


Glint

by ProblemWithTrouble



Series: 00Q [1]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Post Movie: Spectre (2015), Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23917027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblemWithTrouble/pseuds/ProblemWithTrouble
Summary: Q is on vacation when Bond arrives which is odd because Bond was supposed to be retired and with Madeleine Swann.“What are you doing here, Bond?” Q asked, setting aside his book.“I went back to Six and they said you had gone off on vacation. Lovely choice by the way,” Bond said, looking around as if it were the first time he had seen the place; as if he hadn’t been stalking Q around the property all morning.
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Series: 00Q [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1357402
Comments: 15
Kudos: 220
Collections: MI6 Cafe MiniBang





	Glint

Q had earned his vacation. He knew that because M had glared at him when he had said that he could still be reached if anything needed fixing. “I’m sure we can manage a week without you, Quartermaster,” he had said while looking over the paper file in his hands. Logically Q knew that was true, MI6 had lasted a long time before him and they could manage a week, but that didn’t stop the anxiety from making him hesitate over his desk as he logged off on Friday.

He had a flight to catch though, so he forced himself away, took the suitcase he had brought with him and headed to the airport.

It wasn’t a long flight, just a few hours and then a while through customs. He took a cab to the hotel and by the time he was through the door he didn’t have the energy to do more than brush his teeth, change, and crawl under the soft sheets to finally sleep.

The first time he woke up it was with a panic that he had overslept but once he had stepped into the bathroom and realized he wasn’t at home he relaxed. He crawled back under the covers and was asleep again in seconds. Waking the second time was much better. He opened his eyes to the room which was now lit with morning sunshine, stretching and sighing. He considered going back to sleep but decided that at some point his day had to begin. It was nearing 9 o’clock so he showered, dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast.

He had carefully chosen his resort so that there would be no children and the conversation happening in the dining room was a quiet, relaxed buzz. Q looked out at the sea and tried to relax as he waited for his omelet but as he sat there a feeling of being watched came over him and he couldn’t shake it.He might not have been a field agent he knew enough to trust his instincts even if everytime he subtly looked around he saw nothing. When he got back to his room he’d email R to see if she could check the hotel reservations against the MI6 files just to be safe. He’d done that before he left but things changed fast in their world.

As soon as he was done he made a beeline for his room to email R, as casually as possible of course. He sat on the edge of his bed and hadn’t been logged into the secure line for more than a minute before R was messaging him.

_What are you doing online?_

_Emailing you._

_Why?_

_Check your email. :)_ Q signed off quickly after that. The network wasn’t fully secure and the longer it was open the more at risk it became. He did a scan of his room for bugs which he knew he should have done the night before but he’d been far too tired for that. At least he was alone so it wasn’t like he was having covert conversations that needed hiding anyway. Luckily the room was clear anyway.

After looking around the room for a while he decided to go to the pool to try and relax. R would call him when she was done and staying in his room all morning would be suspicious if he was being watched.

He grabbed his messenger bag with his laptop and a book and headed to the pool. He was determined to have a relaxing time so when he found a spot under an umbrella he settled into the lounge chair under it. It wasn’t five minutes before he felt like he was being watched again but once again there was no one looking at him when he scanned the crowd. There wasn’t anyone who seemed familiar either. It was starting to ruin his day. If he had to leave he was going to be very irritated.

A ringing tore him away from the search of the crowd. His temporary cell phone for the week. “Hello,” he said as he tried not to glare at the other guests.

“How’s Greece?” R asked, chipper.

“It could be nicer,” Q said, focusing on the sea view. It was peaceful and reminded him that he was supposed to be on vacation and that if anything were wrong R would take care of it. And that if something were wrong and she needed to tell him she would have cut to the chase.

“Well, there’s no one there that you wouldn’t get along with. Make friends,” she said, a smirk in her voice.

“Oh, are you sure about that?”

“One hundred percent positive. You’re as safe there as you would be in London, maybe more,” she reassured. “Relax, if it makes you feel better I’ll run the list through the second and third-tier lists just to make sure and I’ll update you if even the smallest connection is made.” She sounded a bit like she was trying to placate a child and that snapped Q out of it.

“No. If you’re certain then I trust your judgment. Update me if anything important comes up,” Q said, trying to keep himself even. It was normal for him to be paranoid, it was to be expected.

“I will. Have a nice trip.”

“I’m trying to.” She hung up and Q put away his phone.

After the mess that was Spectre and Bond and Nine Eyes Q needed this to be a relaxing time. He hadn’t signed on to be shot at in a car or to run away from thugs in a ski lodge. He was supposed to be able to sit in Q-Branch to help, to invent, to hack. So when Mallory had suggested he take a vacation, he had agreed wholeheartedly, booking the adults-only resort in a matter of hours.

A waiter came over and took Q’s order for a drink and a few minutes later it had appeared and Q was back to enjoying his relaxing vacation.

He only got two more pages into the book before something started shining in his eyes. For a moment he thought it was just a glint off the sea or the pool but when he looked up to see the source it was someone’s phone. A man with blonde hair, dark sunglasses, broad shoulders, and a smirk that made Q want to hit him. Only one person he could be.

The problem was, of course, that Bond wasn’t supposed to be in Greece. He wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near Q or anyone else from MI6 for that matter. He was supposed to be with Dr. Swann doing whatever it was Bond did with women after a mission. He’d taken Q’s car— whose name was on the title was hardly relevant when Q had been the one to build it back up from nothing but the undercarriage.

Bond saw him glaring and waved before he grabbed his drink and started to make his way around the pool to sit next to Q.

“Hello, Q,” he said in the way he did when he knew he was about to get exactly what he wanted out of him. Q didn’t know if it was the tone of voice that always got him to say yes or if Bond just knew ahead of time that he was going to get what he wanted. Whichever it was, Q really needed to learn how to stop saying yes to people just because he had a thing for them.

“What are you doing here, Bond?” Q asked, setting aside his book.

“I went back to Six and they said you had gone off on vacation. Lovely choice by the way,” Bond said, looking around as if it were the first time he had seen the place; as if he hadn’t been stalking Q around the property all morning.

“And who told you that?”

Bond just kept smirking that insufferable smirk. “R.”

Q narrowed his eyes, though the effect was lost behind his sunglasses. “No, she didn’t.”

“Well, she said you were on vacation. The security note on your file said where you were.”

Q glared, trying his best to keep himself from laughing at Bond’s nonsense. Not the time. “And how exactly did a retired agent get access to the security note?”

Bond shrugged. “Tanner’s password changes just make the number after his wife’s name go up.”

Q was suddenly very tired. “He uses his wife’s name? I’m gonna make IT create his passwords for him,” Q groaned. The chief of staff for a spy organization should really have better practices than that.

Bond just smiled at him like a cat that had left a dead bird on the doorstep.

“None of that answers what you’re doing here, Bond.”

“Maybe I missed my quartermaster.”

“You don’t have a quartermaster. You’re retired, now go home to your lady friend before she remembers all the reasons that it is insane to try to date you,” Q said with a sharp glare.

For a while Bond didn’t say anything, just watching him. Q turned to his book, pretending that he could read anything with Bond still staring. “I un-retired,” Bond said after nearly ten minutes of silence. Q didn’t know if the silence had had a purpose or if Bond had done it for dramatic effect. Q was inclined to believe it was the latter.

Q looked up from his book. “Then shouldn't you be at work and not harassing me?”

Bond swung his legs up to lounge in the chair next to Q, folding his hands behind his head in the picture of relaxation. “No.”

Q rolled his eyes and went back to his book. Without the feeling of being watched nagging at him, he was actually able to relax and enjoy the book, even if Bond was lying next to him pretending to nap. At lunch he ordered some food poolside and another drink not bothering to “wake up” Bond.

It was almost nice until Q reminded himself that it couldn’t be nice. It was an invasion of privacy, that Bond had stalked him to the hotel to bother him for something. What that something was Q wasn’t quite sure but he knew he didn't want to give it up. Bond had taken a few too many things from him lately.

Around five Q packed up his book and got up, causing Bond to stir, opening his eyes and giving Q a disarming smile. “Where are you going?”

“My room.”

“You want some company?”

Q gave him a sharp smile. “Not from you.”

He felt Bond’s eyes on him all the way back to his room. Once inside he took another deep breath and then changed into the nicer clothes he had brought with him, combed his hair and went back out again.

Much to Q’s chagrin, Bond met him in the lobby. Well, he was sitting in the lobby and started walking with Q as soon as he saw him. “You changed.”

“How observant. It’s a wonder anyone ever gets the drop on you with eyes so keen,” Q said adjusting the sports jacket he was wearing.

“Do we have dinner reservations?”

“I certainly do. I don't know what you’re having for dinner.” Q stepped outside into the sun where a path led to the small building where the restaurant was. Bond fell back and for a moment Q thought he might be able to enjoy his dinner in peace.

Q was seated next to the windows and ordered wine by himself, comfortable with the other side of the table empty as he looked over the sea, the late sun twinkling brighter off of the water. Q hadn’t even been able to order before Bond sat down across from him, wearing a dark suit and a triumphant grin. Of course he wasn’t going to be able to eat in peace, this was Bond after all.

“You know it’s rude to leave someone behind. You didn't even invite me to dinner.”

The waiter came and took their orders, Bond picking quickly from the menu, before Q could respond.

“It’s rude to invite yourself to someone else’s dinner,” Q said, taking a drink of his wine. Despite himself, he was starting to relax. He still knew Bond and he knew they got along. Before Bond had left him standing on that bridge he might have even called them friends, Q’s feelings notwithstanding.

“You’re actually upset with me,” Bond said, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be?”

“What did I do that upset you so much?”

“You left. You took the _car_ ,” Q said, staring at Bond like he had grown two heads.

“I was coming back.”

Q stared at him and then he started laughing. It was too absurd not to. Of course Bond was going to come back. Of course Bond knew he was going to come back. He came back after being shot off a train, he came back after his girlfriend drowned in Venice, he came back after nearly all of his friends were dead...Bond came back, it’s what he did. And of course Bond thought everyone knew that and were just going to wait for him.

When Q calmed down enough to actually look at him again, Bond was smiling. “Like I said, I missed my quartermaster.”

Q didn’t stop smiling even after their food arrived and the conversation moved on. Q would have expected Bond to ask about inventions or new prototypes he could steal but instead, he asked about the cats, who was watching them, what they were like, what were their names. Something in it made Q feel warm.

It was stupid. His crush on Bond had almost got him killed and he’d have been fired if M himself hadn’t been involved in the much larger scandal that took place because Q had run off to help Bond in the first place. He’d tried to squash the feelings but every time he got close Bond was back with a smirk and a one-liner and sometimes, if Q was lucky, something sweet; like asking about Q’s cats.

Q let Bond walk him back to his room after dinner. “Will you be joining me for breakfast, James?”

Bond leaned forward and for a moment Q thought that he was going to kiss him and that he’d make a corny line about yes, they could order breakfast in bed. In that moment Q would have kissed back and they would have gone inside and maybe Bond would have stayed until morning to have breakfast still wrapped in white hotel sheets. “You can count on it,” Bond said, then pulled back, watching Q carefully.

Q swallowed and tried not to show how flustered he was. “Then I will see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Q.”

Bond walked backward for three steps before either of them broke eye contact.

* * *

Bond did meet Q for breakfast the next morning. He was drinking coffee in the lobby, reading a newspaper, when Q walked up to him. Bond looked up with a smile. “Are you coming?”

“Yes.” They sat across from each other over breakfast and talked about how beautiful the area was and how good the food was. “You have good taste, Q.”

“Of course I do. What did you expect?”

Afterwards Q found Bond at the pool again and they lounged in silence. It was nice, to be quiet but not alone. To have no pressure to talk, Bond seemed to doze off again stretched out on the lounge chair. Q ordered him lunch and this time hit him with his book to wake him up so that they could share the plate but from the smirk on Bond’s face he had been awake the whole time.

They had dinner together again, not at the same restaurant on the property, so they didn’t need to change, they just went from the pool. It was another nice night of two friends chatting over delicious food. It almost felt normal, like this could be a real part of Q’s life.

When they were done, walking in the warm spring air silence between them and yet somehow feeling like they were still in the middle of a conversation Bond looked over at Q. “Drink before you go to bed?”

Q stopped and looked into the window of the hotel bar. It was dimly lit with booths and only a few people inside. “Okay.” They went inside and Bond got them each a drink while Q found an empty booth. Bond came back with a vodka martini and a beer for Q. “I’d ask how you knew I liked beer over wine or martinis but I’m not sure I want to know,” Q said.

“I pay attention.”

Q hummed. “Sure.”

“You never believe me, Q.”

“And why would I? When usually the reason you know the things that you tell your marks you figured out from “paying attention” are things I found and put in the file for you,” Q said taking a drink of his beer. At least it was good.

“You’re assuming I read the files you give me,” Bond said, leaning closer to Q. The booth that Q had picked out for them was circular and not very large, there were only two of them after all, there should have been plenty of space. In that moment, with all Bond’s attention fixed on him it didn’t feel like there was enough space on the whole island.

“Of course you don’t. Why did I expect any different?” Q said rolling his eyes and trying to scoot away as subtly as he could. With Bond so close and so focused and Q so comfortable and warm it would be easy to fall into each other. And Q wanted to, oh Q wanted to, but he knew he didn’t want to be a fling with Bond and they were on an island in Greece in a resort with good food, good wine, and the constant sound and smell of the sea around them. It was practically the “Fling With James Bond” starter pack.

“Because you like me,” Bond said with a grin, backing up a little to look at Q. Let it never be said that Bond wasn’t very good at reading people or at making people want him. Somehow the distance Bond created by leaning away made Q want to lean in. He felt like he was losing his mind.

Q took a long drink instead of moving. “Do I?”

“It’s okay. I know you can’t help it. Just like I can’t help but come back.”

“Be careful, Bond. It almost sounded like you were making a promise to always come back,” Q said, drinking more of his beer so he had a reason not to look at Bond. At this rate it wasn’t going to last very long.

Bond kept watching him, taking a sip of his martini. “Six needs me.”

“We get along just fine without you,” Q said, shaking his head.

“You certainly pretend to.”

“There are a lot of people who can do what you do. We don’t need you, Bond.”

Bond looked Q dead in the eye, unwavering. “But you want me.”

In an instant Q felt like he had missed a turn. They weren’t talking about Bond and Six anymore, they hadn’t been for a while and he didn’t know when it had happened. “Bond…”

“Q.”

“James. I am not like Ms. Swann.”

“I know. You have brown hair.”

Q scoffed and rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I —”

Bond reached out and put his hand over Q’s. “I know. But I can never stay away, not from Six and these days, from you. And I’m getting a little too old to keep trying to run away from things I want anyway.”

Q was smiling again. God, Bond was smooth. He looked at his mostly empty beer and took the last drink. “I’m going for a walk.”

Bond grinned at him and they both slipped out of the booth, Bond throwing down a little money as a tip as they left.

It was dark outside by then and as they passed by the pool it was empty for the first time that day. Q set down his bag and slipped off his shoes and shirt. “Are you coming?” he asked before diving in. For a second it was just him swimming smoothly through the water. He broke the surface at the same moment that Bond’s arm wrapped around his waist.

The light of the pool shone up, the shadows making Bond look younger, hiding the frown lines and small scars that covered his face. The smile helped with that too, it was so bright that his eyes crinkled and he looked happy in a way that Q wasn’t sure he’d ever seen him.

“You caught me,” Q said, wrapping his arms around Bond’s neck.

Bond leaned in close lips just barely a centimeter from touching Q’s. “I think you have that backwards.”

Q closed the gap and kissed the insufferable man, ignoring the fact that they were both smiling and it was a little awkward. It didn’t matter. For just a moment the smiles made it better.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the MI6 cafe mini-bang with the amazing artists Ven [[Tumblr]](https://1amvengeance.tumblr.com/) [[AO3]](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venstar) and Olly [[Instagram]](https://www.instagram.com/ollyp.art/) [[Tumblr]](https://thecluelesscreator.tumblr.com/)


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